YouSendIt

Cash-Saving Technology Tips for Small Businesses – Part Two of Two

Building on last week’s blog entry (below) of cash saving tips for small businesses, here are a few more ideas.

As always, we’re interested in hearing your great ideas, too, so please include them in the comments below…

Help others – free your servers – A typical Exchange server offers only 500 MB of email storage per user. You can free up your servers cheaply and easily by eliminating email attachments. For example, with a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook users can send files of up to 2 gigabytes directly from email via YouSendIt, and store them on YouSendIt’s servers for anytime access. YouSendIt add-ins for other everyday programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel, Adobe Acrobat, and even the desktop render the email attachment obsolete.

Go green, save green – Energy-saving moves made by small businesses cut costs by 20 to 30 percent, according to the Center for Small Business and the Environment. By sending an urgent contract or presentation via YouSendIt rather than a gas-guzzling courier service, companies can save money and protect the environment. YouSendIt offers digital versions of the time-honored FedEx drop box: through YouSendIt’s SiteDrop and DropBox services, users simply drag-and-drop files for delivery, decreasing their carbon footprint and bottom line expenses.

Focus on you – market smarter, not harder - Look at smart options to keep the marketing train rolling, even during challenging economic times. Web sites like Marketing Sherpa and Duct Tape Marketing are free sources for tips, and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter offer inexpensive platforms to extend your brand to a target audience.

For more information on how to use YouSendIt to cut technology costs, visit us at www.yousendit.com.

Cash-Saving Technology Tips for Small Businesses – Part One of Two

“Change” is the universal theme in 2009 – and to save some change, habits are shifting both at home and in the workplace.  Traditional New Year’s resolutions, like slimming down, saving money and taking better care of our health are popular not only with individuals, but also small businesses.

So, we wanted to offer small businesses simple technology tips to help meet business goals in 2009 and prosper despite the economic times. The tips below show how one company is using YouSendIt to save cash and become more efficient, along with a few other ideas. Look for more to come in our second installment.

By the way, we’re always interested to hear how you’re cutting costs during these tough economic times, yet still maintaining the level of service and production your business requires.

Have a story you want to share? Post a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Spend smartly – avoid luxury costs – Courier services like FedEx and UPS are expensive. Why bother? We can’t ship you’re nephew that copy of Rockband you bought him for his birthday, but we can certainly send your business files a lot faster and cheaper. As a quick example, Consultants PRN, a medical consulting company, saves more than $7,500 in shipping costs every year by using YouSendIt.

Get in shape – slim down on vendors – Businesses can save time and money by going to one vendor for other business-critical needs, such as communications. Look for broadband and phone services in one, cost-effective bundle, such as those offered by Speakeasy, a Best Buy company based in Seattle.

Support the local community – outsource to the US – Companies on average spend more than $6,500 per employee on IT (InfoTech Research Group). This includes time and expense involved in maintaining technology solutions. For IT support, consider eBay-like online marketplaces for ‘help by the hour’ as needs arise.